People with diabetes are taking more pills and less insulin for their disease‚ according to the results of a new government survey.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports that the proportion of Americans with diabetes who took oral medications was 60 percent in 1997 and rose to 77 percent in 2007. From 1997 to 2007‚ the number of patients who reported taking insulin for diabetes fell from 38 percent to 24 percent. This (more…)
An increasing number of adolescents in California are undergoing gastric banding for weight loss‚ new research from the University of California‚ Los Angeles‚ shows.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved gastric banding for use in individuals younger than 18 years‚ but the procedure has overtaken gastric bypass as the most frequently performed weight–loss procedure in this age group. The study looked at 590 California (more…)
Having an abundant supply of primary–care physicians in one area does not mean that the area’s residents are more likely to receive primary care‚ and those who do do not always have better health outcomes‚ says a new report by the Dartmouth Atlas Project.
Investigators looked at the fee–for–service Medicare population from 2003 to 2007‚ including trends in hospital service areas and referral regions. The researchers found that (more…)
News outlets report on how the delivery of health care is being changed by empowered patients.
USA Today: “In the past, most patients placed their entire trust in the hands of their physician. Your doc said you needed a certain medical test, you got it. Not so much anymore. Though some doctors find the newer ‘empowered’ patients taxing, others … welcome involvement and questions, especially since they recognize more (more…)
In a joint study conducted by Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and a research group at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, researchers have now discovered that lipid peroxides* play a specific physiological role in the cell. Prior to this study, scientists had already established that accumulation of lipid peroxides* indicate cell stress. Lipid peroxides have further been (more…)